Former Montreal engineer says corruption exploded after 2000

MONTREAL — A retired City of Montreal engineer says collusion became rampant on local sewer contracts at the turn of the century and that he was pocketing kickbacks galore.

Gilles Surprenant was back on the stand for a third day at the Charbonneau Commission on Tuesday, going over 91 contracts in which he was involved between 2000 and 2009.

Calmly and with a clearer memory than he’d exhibited in the first two days, Surprenant said the majority of public works contracts he helped plan were rigged and that he was compensated each time.

Surprenant testified he received kickbacks from construction bosses ranging from $3,000 to $10,000. At least twice, he pocketed about $22,000.

By the commission’s count and Surprenant’s own admission, he walked away with between $50,000 and $60,000 in 2000 alone.

By the midday break on Tuesday, he’d accounted for more than $300,000 on roughly 40 contracts.

Surprenant has admitted he collected as much as $600,000 in kickbacks over a 20-year period. He returned $122,800 to the inquiry in August and says he gambled away and used up the rest.

He also received numerous tropical holidays, expensive meals and concert and hockey tickets.

Surprenant said collusion was rampant and occurred on contracts big and small. After some prodding from commission lawyer Denis Gallant, Surprenant admitted that many people at city hall were in the know.

“From what I hear, perhaps it was an open secret, as you say,” Surprenant said.

He said he artificially increased the price of contracts determined by a computer program to meet the requests of construction companies working in a cartel.

Surprenant said that in 2000, the list of bidders was made public, which helped construction companies collude.

“If the lists weren’t made public, this phenomenon probably wouldn’t have existed,” the engineer said.

While it may have been an “open secret,” Surprenant repeated that his bosses always signed off on his work. And no one did anything to stop the rising costs.

“It was always accepted, at all levels, right up to the executive committee,” he said of the inflated contracts, sometimes as high as 35 per cent.

“It was spoken about in the office, it was known to everyone but no one from the administration or my bosses ever came to see me.”

Surprenant never told anyone about the amounts he was receiving and said he was never completely comfortable with the kickback scheme. His cuts were collected in a variety of places, from streetcorners to the headquarters of major construction companies.

Surprenant said some were more comfortable with living a lavish lifestyle.